Day 6 of my safari, We decided to try for my Achilles heal again (springbok). Fingers crossed, we make our way from the lodge and onto the family property and once again there is no shortage of animals to be seen! We go to the area that the springbok seem to prefer and immediately spot a herd but there were no mature males in this group, so we move over the ridge and spot another group of them and this herd had a nice male, we make our plan for the stalk and everything works in our favor, all except for my shooting ability! Yes that’s right, I had a shot and missed once again! We spot some warthogs and the trackers mentioned they needed some meat so they bailed off the mountain with the dogs and chased those crazy hogs down and into there hole, we made our way down to them and Willem takes the rifle and I get to watch this different type of hunt. The dogs have the hog in the hole and Willem stands over it and as the hog comes out to attack the dog Willem dispatches it as soon as the head comes into view, this was an exciting experience for my daughter and I to be a part of. We take the hog to the processing shed so they can get the meat taken care of. As we were at the house we were treated with a fresh salad, a wonderful steak, the most amazing home cut French fries, and the wonderful fresh squeezed orange juice. Fat and full once again, we head outside. We decided to take the 22 with us as we were hoping to see some of those pesky vervet monkeys, and as luck would have it as we were getting in the truck we caught some movement in the field near the house, “Monkeys” I point out to Willem, and he says “let’s go” into the trees on the edge of the drive way, not even 80 yards from the house, we had us an old west shoot out like the shooting gallery at the amusement park! Baylee came down from playing with the dogs and says to me she wanted to try, We immediately found her a monkey and she set up on a dead limb we broke off so she would have a solid rest. Willem tells her where to aim and she fired, the monkey drops right out of the tree with 1 perfect head shot, she looks at me and says “maybe I should shoot the springbok for you dad” I smile at her and tell her that’s fine with me since a can’t hit them, we take some pictures of the monkeys and off to look for the springbok we go. As we are making our way down the road another warthog crosses the road in front of us and Willem hands me the rifle “the trackers need more meat” so I jump out and shoot, it drops immediately, and we have another hog for them to eat, we load it up in the truck and go to the area for springbok, we hike into the area and we don’t see them anywhere, we turn back to head to the truck and as we make our way Willem spots movement in the thick brush and throws up the binoculars, he spotted them, we sneak into range as they are feeding, scanning for a male. He spots one, now the wait was on, we sat and watched this group for nearly an hour, when they would move we would move to try to get a clear shooting lane, finally we have a clear lane but the male isn’t in it, all of a sudden they bolt, something spooked them, but luck would have it the male stoped where I could see him through a narrow gap in the thickets, this was my chance, I was already set up on the sticks and I fired, “he’s down”, Willem says, I finally was able to hit my Achilles heal! Baylee comes down to me and stays “if you would have missed again I was really gonna try to shoot it for you”. We all laughed about her comment and walked over to see this beautiful little animal. I mentioned to Willem that I think I got the springbok because I finally got the monkeys off my back! Referring to our previous hunt for the blue balls! We took pictures of this beautifully marked animal and we loaded it up. All in all I believe I shot at 5 different springbok before I was able to harvest mine, who knows why? Not I, but I know that was the most challenging animal for me to hit, and I look forward to the next time I get a chance to hunt these little beauties.
